Today’s news that Marvel has commenced director decisions on it’s upcoming “Doctor Strange” movie would suggest, I imagine, our movie news pages will soon be filled with a whole lotta “Doctor Strange” news – of both the true and false variety. But with the film inching closer to production, you’d imagine some of the new rumors are slightly more credible than the twelve-month old ones pegging a computer-generated Yogi Bear the film’s frontrunner.

In fact, early casting rumours had Johnny Depp the frontrunner to play Marvel’s moustached magician of much do-goodin’. Not sure what’s happened there – because some pretty credible sources swore black-and-blue that the ‘Lone Ranger’ star was definitely approached – but the idea to bring Depp into the Marvel universe seems to have been put on pause for the moment.

Latest rumour? The current headline act might be Mads Mikkelsen.

The one-time Bond baddie turned small-screen “Hannibal” is said to be on the wish-list, according to Bleeding Cool.

Interestingly enough, one of the four directors mentioned today as being in the running to helm the picture is Nikolaj Arcel, who directed Mikkelsen in 2013 Oscar nominee “A Royal Affair”.

Here’s what the site has to say :

Seeing Arcel’s name on the list made the most impact here because it really lit up a different story that I’ve been hearing. According to one pretty solid Marvel-adjacent source, Arcel’s Royal Affair star Mads Mikkelsen apparently is, or has been, somewhere in the mix for the film’s early casting discussions.

I’m still trying to find another source on that, or to clarify which part it would be, and whether or not Mikkelsen might have already passed or been passed over. And there were other names mentioned at the same time, that I’m also still investigating…

It doesn’t necessarily follow that Arcel would bring Mikkelsen or Mikkelsen bring Arcel, of course. We could just as easily see the actor on board with Levine, or Israelite.

“Doctor Strange” looks to be a 2016 release, which sounds like a long ways off – but in blockbuster movie-maker world, it isn’t; Marvel are likely looking to cast this role pretty soon so they can get going on what’s assumed to be a rather lengthy (like most superhero movies) production phase. Expect to hear some sort of official casting news on this one in the coming weeks.

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